The nature of vowel length in Ekegusii A theoretical account
Abstract
This article
is
aim
ed
at
presen
ti
ng
a report on
vowel length in Ekegusii
,
a Narrow
Bantu language spoken in
south western Kenya by about 2.2 million Abagusii. Abagusii are found
in Kisii and Nyamira counties, S
outh
of Kavirondo Gulf
in Kenya
.
Th
e
objectives of the study were to:
investigate the relationship between vowel
length and mean
ing in Ekegusii; determine the p
honological processes that trigger
vowel length in Ekegusii
and
find out the orthographic presentation of vowel length
in Ekegusii.
Data for this study was
c
o
llected
from reading published books in Ekegusii. A word list
was
generated
and presented to n
ative Ekegusii
speakers who
were instructed to
read it aloud
.
T
heir speech
was
recorded and
analysed following the tenets
of
Autosegmental Phonology Theory.
The analyses have shown that
vowel length in Ekegusii is either
phonemi
c or phonetic. Phonemic vowel length in E
kegusii makes lexical contrasts, that is,
distinguishes
word meaning
.
This kind of vowel length
is reflected in the spellings of Ekegusii words as double letters.
Phonetic vowel length, on the other hand, is realize
d after the phonetic environment is altered.
This vowel
length
is
realized
as a result of the
interaction between the morphological process of affixation and the
phonological processes
of glide formation, vowel raising and vowel deletion
.
Such processes ha
ve been
viewed as hiatus resolution strategies in the language. Phonetic vowel length, the
findings indicate
,
does not
make
lexical distinctions and is not reflected in the spellings of a word.
Such observations, it is hoped,
will
be important to writers,
readers,
teachers
, learners
and researchers of Ekegusii
Citation
Komenda, Samwel (2015). The nature of vowel length in Ekegusii A theoretical account. International journal of education and research vol. 3(9); PP. 1-14Publisher
University of Nairobi